NBC News Chief Stepping Down Amid Troubles

By ELIZABETH KOLBERT

Published: March 3, 1993

The president of NBC's embattled news division, Michael G. Gartner, announced yesterday that he was resigning. In a memorandum to employees, Mr. Gartner said he hoped his departure, which follows several highly publicized embarrassments for NBC News, would "take the spotlight off of all of us."

Mr. Gartner's announcement came three weeks after "Dateline NBC," a newsmagazine program under his supervision, issued an extraordinary on-the-air apology to the General Motors Corporation for using deceptive film of a vehicle crash. The "Dateline" report and apology, in which NBC admitted it had attached "incendiary devices" to a G.M. truck to make sure it would explode on impact, have drawn widespread ridicule. Resignation Called Voluntary

In a memo to NBC news division employees, Robert C. Wright, the president of the network, characterized Mr. Gartner's resignation as voluntary, and Mr. Gartner, 54, insisted yesterday that he had long planned to leave sometime this year. But in an interview yesterday, Mr. Wright suggested that he had played a crucial role in hastening Mr. Gartner's decision.

He said Mr. Gartner had informed him in a general way last year of his intention to leave this summer. After the "Dateline" uproar, though, Mr. Wright said he and Mr. Gartner had both decided that even if the resignation came several months from now, it would be seen as resulting from the G.M. report. And in the meantime, Mr. Wright said, Mr. Gartner was simply acting as a lightning rod for criticism. 'Just Do It Now'

"The conclusion that he reached and I reached was, if that's the case, maybe we ought to just do it now," Mr. Wright said. "It sort of became mutually apparent that this was probably the right time."

In a separate telephone interview, Mr. Gartner said he had told Mr. Wright late last week of his intention to resign. "He didn't say, 'No, don't quit,' " Mr. Gartner recalled. "But it was my initiative. It's clear that the press and affiliates wanted blood, so I offered mine up."

High-ranking network executives and well known members of NBC's news division said yesterday that they had been expecting Mr. Gartner's resignation.

"It didn't surprise many people around here," said Bryant Gumbel, a host of the "Today" program. "I think it was not a question of if, but when."

Mr. Gartner's aloof manner and stringent cost-cutting measures had antagonized many in the news department, and several prominent NBC executives said he had little support in his division by the time he announced his departure. Many officials at the network's affiliated stations around the country also remained critical of Mr. Gartner. They have not forgotten, for example, the night of the Northern California earthquake in October 1989 when NBC, alone among the major networks, took more than 90 minutes to get continuous live coverage on the air.

In recent weeks, Mr. Gartner has been the subject of a spate of fiercely negative press reports, including, most recently, a critical article that appeared in Newsweek on Monday.

Members of the news division said yesterday that Mr. Gartner would leave behind a department suffering a crisis of confidence. Contributing to the news division's demoralization, they said, is the fact that NBC's evening newscast seems wedged in third place in the ratings.

"Look, there's no question the last month has been a very difficult period here at NBC," Jeff Zucker, executive producer of both the "Today" program and the "NBC Nightly News," said. "To Michael's credit, he took the first step toward rebuilding the division." Results of Inquiry Soon

Mr. Gartner is the first -- though NBC executives cautioned not necessarily the only -- casualty of the news division's recent travails. The results of a network investigation into the "Dateline" broadcast are expected to be issued in a few days.

Although Mr. Gartner will technically remain at NBC for five more months to fulfill pension requirements, he said yesterday that he did not expect to participate in decisions from now on. The network's president, Mr. Wright, announced that the executive vice president of the news division, Don Browne, would assume day-to-day management of news programs during the search for Mr. Gartner's replacement.

"We've got to win back the heart and soul of the organization," Mr. Browne, a possible successor to Mr. Gartner, said yesterday. "That's my challenge." Family Remained in Iowa

Mr. Gartner arrived at NBC yesterday morning not to work but to bid goodbye to his staff. He passed through the control room of the "Today" program, shaking hands, and attended part of the morning news meeting.

Throughout his time at NBC News, based in New York, Mr. Gartner's family remained in his native Iowa, and he typically flew home for the weekend. Reached yesterday at his New York residence, Mr. Gartner said he planned to return to Iowa, where he maintained a publishing business, and to write on First Amendment issues.

Mr. Gartner took over NBC's news division in August 1988, at a time when it was losing more than $100 million a year. Under pressure from NBC's owner, the General Electric Company, which had taken it over in 1986, Mr. Gartner instituted a drastic cost-cutting program that included trimming or closing news bureaus and eliminating scores of jobs.